How to Make Beneficiary Designations

Ensuring that your life insurance policies, individual retirement accounts and pension accounts have the proper named beneficiaries is an essential part to any comprehensive estate plan. As recently as October 2008 the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in on the importance of beneficiary designations.

Karri Kennedy, the daughter of a former Dupont Inc. employee had sought her share of her father's retirement plan benefits. She claimed that he had said that he wanted it to go to her but had never changed his beneficiary designations despite getting a divorce from Karri's mother. Instead the court ruled that the mother was entitled to the retirement plan as the designated beneficiary.

A recent online guide from Yahoo Finance, entitled "Naming Beneficiaries of Insurance Policies and Retirement Plans" answers some questions and gives some advice for naming beneficiary of various policies and retirement accounts. Read more On "How to Make Beneficiary Designations"!

House Votes to make permanent 2009 Estate Tax

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill today which would make this years $3.5 million dollar per person estate tax exclusion permanent.

You can see a Bloomberg story on this event here.
The bill that passed is H.R.4154, entitled "Permanent Estate Tax Relief for Families, Farmers, and Small Businesses Act of 2009."

Next the Senate will take up the Estate and Gift Tax Issue. All indications are that the Senate will keep the $3.5 million estate tax exclusion as well.

Indeed in a previous article I noted that all current proposals pending before Congress would have made the $3.5 million Estate Tax Exemption permanent. There are some important differences between the bills involving the use of intra-family discounts, new limitations on GRATS (Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts), and portability of the exclusion.

Stay tuned. When a new bill passes both houses I will write on what changes were enacted.

ABOUT CHRISTOPHER R. TWINING
Christopher R. Twining, Attorney at Law, based in the Westwood Neighborhood of Los Angeles is an innovative estate planning, probate & trust administration, and elder law attorney, who offers in home services for busy and movement challenged clients. The Law Office of Christopher R. Twining serves the cities of Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Culver City, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Pasadena, Burbank and the neighborhoods of West Los Angeles, Westwood, Brentwood, Bel-Air, Pacific Palisades, Palms, Pico-Robertson and Encino. Dedicated to helping individuals and couples prepare comprehensive estate plans according to their wishes; he offers them these services at an affordable price, in the relaxed comfort of their homes. For more information about his services, please visit http://www.twininglaw.com or call (310) 492-5990.

CHRISTOPHER R. TWINING
LAW OFFICES OF CHRISTOPHER R. TWINING
1440 VETERAN AVENUE, SUITE 509
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90024
(310) 492-5990 Fax (310) 775 - 9774
http://www.twininglaw.com

Read more On "House Votes to make permanent 2009 Estate Tax"!

VIDEOTAPING YOUR ESTATE PLAN

An article in Today's Wall Street Journal discusses the pros and cons of videotaping your will signing or estate plan. It does a good job of discussing the advantages and disadvantages.

Among the pros identified are:

• It can head off a fight over your estate plan, by demonstrating your competence and reasons for why you might give unequal amounts to children etc.
• Ofcourse, if a dispute does materialize after you die, it can serve as evidence of your testamentary capacity and your desires.
• It can also serve as a more personal legacy than a legal document on paper.

Among the potential cons identified are:

• It can serve of evidence of a lack of capacity if the person on the videotape seems senile, unresponsive, or uncomfortable, and therefore ultimately lead to a dispute that might not have materialized otherwise.
• It can of course cost more. (You will need to have your attorney consulted and present to ask appropriate questions.)
• It can create confusion as to the intent of the person, if they make statements that conflict with the terms of the estate planning documents.

It also cautions that this is not something that you want to do yourself or have one of your children videotape. First of all this document is going to serve as evidence in any potential proceeding, you need the advice of an attorney. Secondly, if a non neutral party like a child makes the videotape it can be argued that its evidence of undue influence.

And the article makes the excellent point that if you are going to leave unequal amounts to children or other similarly related relatives, you may want to let them know that you are leaving them unequal amounts while you are still alive so that you can set their expectations early instead of having them be shocked when they discover that after you pass.

ABOUT CHRISTOPHER R. TWINING
Christopher R. Twining, Attorney at Law, based in the Westwood Neighborhood of Los Angeles is an innovative estate planning, probate & trust administration, and elder law attorney, who offers in home services for busy and movement challenged clients. The Law Office of Christopher R. Twining serves the cities of Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Culver City, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Pasadena, Burbank and the neighborhoods of West Los Angeles, Westwood, Brentwood, Bel-Air, Pacific Palisades, Palms, Pico-Robertson and Encino. Dedicated to helping individuals and couples prepare comprehensive estate plans according to their wishes; he offers them these services at an affordable price, in the relaxed comfort of their homes. For more information about his services, please visit http://www.twininglaw.com or call (310) 492-5990.

CHRISTOPHER R. TWINING
LAW OFFICES OF CHRISTOPHER R. TWINING
1440 VETERAN AVENUE, SUITE 509
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90024
(310) 492-5990 Fax (310) 775 - 9774
http://www.twininglaw.com

Read more On "VIDEOTAPING YOUR ESTATE PLAN"!